LECTURE 1.
4
The Filipino Concept of Art
A social view of the world makes people sociable, harmony-seeking and unitive.
It encourages a devotional attitude towards the highest ranking being in the cosmic
social order for the reason that becoming one with this figure unites one with the whole
world. Filipino traditional culture, which is essentially Southeast Asian, views the
universe as the infinite manifestations of a dynamic, creative living spirit, whose sacred
essence is often symbolized as a mythical hero or divine being and whose concrete
representations are believed to be permeated by this being’s spiritual energy.
Hence, images of these divine beings attract so much devotional fervor in all
traditional Filipino life, especially in the villages. A strongly shared devotion develops an
expanded sense of self, an orientation that is communal rather than individualistic,
intuitive and holistic rather than logical and analytic, and preferring interdependence and
relationships over self-assertion and privacy.
Filipinos are highly relational people. They are hardly alone, quite happy being
together – when they eat, sleep, work, travel, pray, create or celebrate. Having a
minimal sense of privacy, they are open, trusting and easily accessible socially. Instead
of a meticulous concern for safeguarding their private sphere, as in the case of Western
peoples, many Filipinos actively seek a convergence of their lives with the lives of
others. For example, a sharing of concern is seen in a common form of greeting in the
region such as, “Where are you going?” or “Where have you been?” Sharing of tasks
and responsibilities within the family and the community is a way of life. Thus, they
become highly skilled and creative in interpersonal relations and social interaction. The
capacity to integrate socially becomes one of the hallmarks of maturity 1.
What is the major influence of Western art to Filipino art?
Let us try to recall some influential Filipino artists.
Damian Domingo. Son of Chinese immigrants converted to Christianity, but
thought to be a noble Spanish descent by the Spaniards so that they commissioned him
to paint
Engaged by a merchant to paint, in miniaturismo style, albums of people wearing their
daily costumes. Had a vision of making art more accessible to the Filipinos (Indios)
Founded the first Art School in the Philippines Escuela Dibujo y Pintura in Tondo
Manila in 1821. His patron was Sociedad Economica de los Amigos del Pais
Professor and Director of the Philippine Art Academy. The academy was closed after
his death producing Filipino artists trained in Western artistic tradition.
Damian Domingo's contribution to the development of art as an academic
discipline in the Philippines was seminal. He took an important step toward his vision of
1
In Focus: Philippine Arts in Context - National Commission for Culture and the Artsgwhs-stg02.i.gov.ph
making art more accessible in 1821, when he established a school for artists in his
residence in Tondo. It was a major leap for the discipline in the Philippines. He also
oversaw the growth and development of art as the director of the first official Philippine
art academy. The academy was also possibly the first of its kind in all of Asia to teach
the Western techniques of foreground, middle-ground, and background perspectives.
The academy also explored other foreign artistic techniques, an approach that helped
shape the careers of the new generation of Filipino artists. When another art school,
named Academia de Dibujo, opened in 1823, Domingo was offered a teaching position
by its founders, the Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País (Royal Economic
Society of the Friends of the Country). Domingo later went on to serve as the director of
the academy2
Tipos del País is a style of watercolor painting that shows the different types of
inhabitants in the Philippines in their different native costumes that show their social
status and occupation during colonial times 3
The following six tipos del pais were rendered on pith paper (a type of smooth,
bone-white paper used for paintings) using Gouache (which is similar to watercolor). It
has an opaque or matte finish to it.
2
Damián Domingo - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
3
Philippine Art HIstory
Damian Domingo's creations laid the foundation for Western Art in the
Philippines.To put everything in context, let's distinguish the people living in the
Philippines during the Spanish Period. Clearly, there was a class distinction both racially
and regionally. Indio and India were used to identify the "Natives" or natural-born in the
Philippines. Mestizos were classified into several categories. There were the Mestizo de
Espanol who has a mixed ancestry of Spanish and Indio. Mestizo de Sangley were
those who had Chinese and Indio blood. Tornatrás was a term used for those who had
Spanish, Chinese, and Indio ancestry. The term Peninsulares or Espanol were reserved
for those who had pure Spanish blood. They were born in Iberian Spain. Insulares or
Filipinos were those of Spanish descent who were born in the Philippines.
19th Century clothing was dictated by the norms of society. Costumes were also
affected by where you live and the type of work that you do. Fabrics, designs, and even
the construction added to the disparities. Environment and climate are also factors in
what people were wearing during those times. Even in Jose Rizal's novels, clothing
played an important role. The depiction of the class system was interwoven in the
characters relationship with each other.
Domingo's tipos del pais is like the Instagram or Look Book of the Spanish Era.
Aside from having varied clothes depending on the occasion, folks during this time are
also known to socialize via a leisurely walk around the plaza or parks. These
promenades are a way for them to show off their attire 4.
JUAN LUNA (1857-1899)
Bachelor of Arts Degree, Ateneo Municipal de
Manila. Enrolled in Academy of Fine Arts, Manila
Went to Europe in 1877, and studied in Escuela de
Bellas Artes de San Fernando
Won gold medal in Exposicion Nacional de Bellas
Artes in 1884 for Spoliarium
Commissioned by Spanish government to do
paintings like La Batalla de Lepanto and El Pacto de
Sangre
Arrested for murdering his wife and mother-in-law,
but was acquitted on grounds of crime of passion.
4
Six 19th Century Outfits According to Damian Domingo's Tipos del Paiswww.thevisualtraveler.net
Juan Luna,
Spoliarium,
1884, Gold
Medal,
Exposicion
Nacional
NEOCLASSICAL
STYLE
The painting features a glimpse of Roman history centered on the bloody
carnage brought by gladiatorial matches. Spoliarium is a Latin word referring to the
basement of the Roman Colosseum where the fallen and dying gladiators are dumped
and devoid of their worldly possessions.
At the center of Luna’s painting are fallen gladiators being dragged by Roman
soldiers. On the left, spectators ardently await their chance to strip off the combatants of
their metal helmets and other armory. In contrast with the charged emotions featured on
the left, the right side meanwhile presents a somber mood. An old man carries a torch
perhaps searching for his son while a woman weeps the death of her loved one.
The Spoliarium is the most valuable oil-on-canvas painting by Juan Luna, a
Filipino educated at the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura (Philippines) and at the
Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain. With a size of 4.22 meters x 7.675
meters, it is the largest painting in the Philippines. A historical painting, it was made by
Luna in 1884 as an entry to the prestigious Exposicion de Bellas Artes (Madrid Art
Exposition, May 1884) and eventually won for him the First Gold Medal 5.
Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo writes, "...the fact remains that when Luna and
Félix Resurrección Hidalgo won the top awards in the Madrid Exposition of 1884, they
proved to the world that indios could, despite their supposed barbarian race, paint better
than the Spaniards who colonized them6.
https://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph/nationalmuseumbeta/Collections/Spoliarium.htmlwww.nationalmus
eum.gov.ph
6
Ocampo, Ambeth R. (2000). Rizal Without the Overcoat. Anvil Publishing
Felix R. Hidalgo, Las
Virgines Cristiana
espuestas al
population, 1884,
Silver Medal
Awardee,
Exposicion Nacional
Nineteenth century Filipino impressionist painter Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo was
as prominent and influential a historical figure as he was an artist of the Philippines.
Although he did not directly participate in the Philippine Reform Movement, he called
certain members of the movement friends, including José Rizal and Mariano Ponce,
and left lasting impressions on them through his art. Considered by some historians as
one of the driving forces in using the power of visual art to make statements about
national conflicts, Hildalgo painted landscapes, seascapes, portraits, and historical and
mythological scenes that exposed the true identity and intentions of the colonial rulers
of the Philippines. He was considered by Filipinos as a national hero and a celebrated
artist around for his historic and aesthetically powerful paintings, many of which
demanded attention and won high honors among thousands of entries at prestigious
international exhibitions. Hidalgo created over one thousand works—many large-scale
neoclassical canvasses and murals—using oil, watercolor, pastels, and charcoal.
He was born in 1855 in Binondo, a district of Manila, better known as
“Chinatown” today due to the large ethnic Chinese population that resides there, but at
the time of Hidalgo’s birth the Philippines was part of the Spanish East Indies. Hidalgo’s
father was a successful lawyer and landowner and his mother, a businesswoman.
Details of Hidalgo’s early education are limited, however it is speculated that his mother
schooled him from home. In 1871, Hidalgo earned a Bachelor of Philosophy from one of
the largest Catholic universities in the world, the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
Father Sabater, a teacher at the university, was a mentor to Hidalgo who gave him his
first lessons in drawing and encouraged him to focus on his artistic talents. Hidalgo had
previously pursued a law degree due to parental pressure, but he was unsuccessful.
His passion for art trumped all other interests and he decided to continue studying art,
and moved to Europe. From 1879 to 1881, he studied painting on a scholarship funded
by the Spanish government at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando,
Madrid, and was simultaneously enrolled under Spanish master painter, Don Agustin
Saez, at the Escuela de Dibujo y Pintura. The terms of his scholarship required him to
execute several life-sized canvases for the Spanish colonial government, some of
which were destroyed in World War II. One of young Hidalgo’s earliest
accomplishments was in 1877, when he placed second in a cover design contest for
Flora de Manila (“Plants of the Philippines”) ranking only behind his school’s director
and much more experienced artist, Saez, who won first place. In 1879, he went to
Rome under scholarship to paint several portraits, including Senador Romano (“Roman
Senator”) and Melancholia. Hidalgo camped throughout Spain in 1883 to practice
painting landscapes and then moved to Paris in 1884.
He first gained notoriety at the 1884 Madrid Exposition of Fine Arts, alongside
Filipino painter Juan Luna. Luna won one of fifteen gold medals for Spoliarium and
Hidalgo’s Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho (“Christian Virgins Exposed to
the Populace”) received the ninth of forty-five silver medals. Hidalgo’s winning piece
shows a group of semi-nude female slaves, one with her feet bound and head bowed,
taunted by a mob of barbaric Roman males. The Filipino people rejoiced upon learning
of these honors and toasted to what they considered symbolic proof of Filipino equality
with the Spaniards. This achievement also prompted Filipinos to be more active
participants in European culture. Jose Rizal commented on Hidalgo’s silver medal
painting and the painter during a banquet in Madrid the same year stating, “…in
Hidalgo’s work there are revealed feelings of the purest kind; ideal expression of
melancholy, beauty and weakness—victims of brute force…in Hidalgo we find all is
light, color, harmony, feeling, clearness; like the Philippines on moonlit nights, with her
horizons that invite to meditation and suggest infinity.”
Hidalgo won other prestigious awards around the world for Oedipus y Antigone
(Oedipus and Antigone), El Violinista (“The Violinist”; gold medal), La Barca de
Aqueronte (“The Boat of Charon”), Laguna estigia (“The Styx”; gold medal), and others.
La Barca de Aqueronte has a remarkable history as it was shown at the Exposition
Universalle in Paris (silver medal), again at the Exposición General de Bellas Artes of
Barcelona (gold medal), and at the International Exposition of Fine Arts in Madrid
(diploma de honor) during the quadricentennial anniversary of the discovery of America
by Christopher Columbus. Ultimately, the Spanish government bought the painting in
1893 and hung it in the Museo-Biblioteca de Ultramar. After the United States annexed
the Philippines, it was sent to the Museo Nacional de Pinturas de Madrid. In 1904,
Hidalgo took a gold medal for his overall performance in the Universal Exposition in St.
Louis, Missouri.
Hidalgo spent more time painting abroad—nearly thirty years in total—than he
did living in the Philippines. He enjoyed living the quiet life in Paris, devoting his life to
art, and working from his studio, which became a refuge of sorts for Filipino artists and
revolutionaries. Although he struggled financially as an artist in the city, Hidalgo adored
Paris and was extremely productive during his time there. To help support his career,
Hidalgo even worked as a correspondent for La Independencia, a newspaper published
in Manila by a revolutionary general.
One year before his death he traveled to Asia and parts of Eastern Europe. He
began this trip with a six-month visit to post-revolutionary Philippines to see his sick
mother and other relatives who he had been apart for nearly thirty years. While in
Manila he completed several landscapes of his homeland. Hidalgo’s mother wanted him
to remain with her until her death, but the artist did not want to be away from Paris for
long. He left his family and traveled to Japan and took the Trans-Siberian railway back
to Europe, however he fell severely ill in Russia and was near death by the time he
reached his beloved Paris. He journeyed on to Spain in hopes of recovery, but died at
the age of 53 near Barcelona in 1913. Hidalgo was honored by the Philippines that
same year with a street named after him in Quiapo, Manila. Hidalgo Street was
regarded as the most beautiful street in Manila during the late 19th century. His remains
were returned to the Philippines by a friend for final burial at a family mausoleum in
Manila.
His work is featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and the Lopez
Museum in Pasig City, Philippines. A work by Hidalgo on the art market may approach
a selling price near seven figures7.
“…. In the history of mankind there are names
which in themselves signify an achievement….
To such belong the names of Luna and Hidalgo:
their splendor illuminates two extremes of the
globe-the Orient and the Occident, Spain and the
Philippines. As I utter them, I seem to see two
luminous arches that rise from either region to
blend there on high…to unite two peoples with
eternal bonds; two peoples whom the seas and
space vainly separate; two peoples among
whom do not germinate the seeds of disunion
blindly sown by men and their despotism. Luna
and Hidalgo are the pride of Spain as of the
Philippines-though born in the Philippines, they
might have been born in Spain, for genius has
no country; genius bursts forth everywhere….”
DR. JOSE P. RIZAL
Winning the exposition had proven that Filipinos were equal with the Spaniards, so that
the Filipinos deserve the recognition of other people in the world with equal dignity and
respect.
July 29, 2011
7
Felix Hidalgo - PHILIPPINE ART GALLERYwww.philippineartgallery.com
What is the influence of Western Art to Filipino Art?
IN FOCUS: PHILIPPINE ARTS IN CONTEXT
PROF. FELIPE M. DE LEON, JR.
A social view of the world makes people sociable, harmony-seeking and unitive.
It encourages a devotional attitude towards the highest ranking being in the cosmic
social order for the reason that becoming one with this figure unites one with the whole
world. Filipino traditional culture, which is essentially Southeast Asian, views the
universe as the infinite manifestations of a dynamic, creative living spirit, whose sacred
essence is often symbolized as a mythical hero or divine being and whose concrete
representations are believed to be permeated by this being’s spiritual energy.
Hence, images of these divine beings attract so much devotional fervor in all
traditional Filipino life, especially in the villages. A strongly shared devotion develops an
expanded sense of self, an orientation that is communal rather than individualistic,
intuitive and holistic rather than logical and analytic, and preferring interdependence and
relationships over self-assertion and privacy.
Filipinos are highly relational people. They are hardly alone, quite happy being
together – when they eat, sleep, work, travel, pray, create or celebrate. Having a
minimal sense of privacy, they are open, trusting and easily accessible socially. Instead
of a meticulous concern for safeguarding their private sphere, as in the case of Western
peoples, many Filipinos actively seek a convergence of their lives with the lives of
others. For example, a sharing of concern is seen in a common form of greeting in the
region such as, “Where are you going?” or “Where have you been?” Sharing of tasks
and responsibilities within the family and the community is a way of life. Thus, they
become highly skilled and creative in interpersonal relations and social interaction. The
capacity to integrate socially becomes one of the hallmarks of maturity.
The communal orientation is manifested in all aspects of traditional Filipino
village life and, to a great extent, even in urban settings.
Attributes of Integral Art
The traditional arts most sensitively reflect this communal orientation. Being the
most lucid and expressive symbols of a culture’s values, the arts are the most powerful
instruments of inquiry into the essential character of a culture. It is undeniable that the
following basic concepts and attributes of art and the contexts of artistic creation,
expression and experience could only have arisen in communal or integral Filipino
cultural settings:
Integration of the arts with other values and functions; they are not valued for
their own sakes. The aesthetic is not divorced from utilitarian, religious, moral, spiritual,
social, and ecological concerns. This ensures a balanced cultivation and development
of human faculties – physical skills as well as inner potentials.
Unity of the arts. Consistent with the integration of faculties is the integration of
artistic sensibilities. No one sensory mode and aesthetic intelligence is to be cultivated
at the expense of the others. Although one may be given emphasis – literary, visual,
spatial, musical, kineaesthetic, gustatory and olfactory senses have to be harnessed
and promoted together for maximum aesthetic well-being.
Art is integrated with everyday life and not regarded as a separate activity; it
does not become a specialism (specialization that is narrow or at the expense of
everything else, according to Jacques Barzun). It is not for the specialist alone but for
everyone. This implies that there will be no special venues or spaces for art because it
virtually exists wherever and whenever there is human activity.
Equality of opportunity for participation in the artistic, creative process; there are
relatively no superstars, for the source of power is not the individual, who is only a
channel of divine inspiration or creativity. Thus, the author or creator is often
anonymous.
The artist is not separate from his audience or society, communal participation is
the norm. Unlike in the West, there is no dichotomy of artist and society because art is
not the specialists’s concern alone. Everybody is expected to be an artist and
participate in creative, expressive activities.
Flexibility of material, technical, and formal requirements. No rigid or fixed
standards dictate the choice of materials, techniques, and forms for artistic creation and
expression, e.g. there is nothing like an arbitrary, fixed system of tuning as in the
European equal-tempered system though definite principles underlie the tuning of
musical
instruments such as lutes, flutes and gongs. Such flexibility ensures a wider
participation of people in artistic activity.
Use of available resources for artistic creation. Art is not synonymous with big
production costs because what matters is artistic excellence or the creative idea as well
as making art part of everyday life. Thus, the least expensive mediums, e.g. paper for
kites is regarded highly and not considered inferior to the costlier ones. And even the
most practical objects like a coconut grater, container, knife handle, tree stump, mat, or
hat can become a medium for the finest art.
Emphasis on the creative process rather than the finished product, endowing
extemporaneous, improvisatory or spontaneous expressions of creativity a higher value
than deliberate, often solitary, conceptualization and composition of forms. This valuing
of process rather than product nurtures creative health and can inhibit mere idolizing of
masterpieces and obsession with permanence
Simultaneity of conception and realization. Affirmation of the creative imagination
through the tradition of instant mirroring or biofeedback, which, together with emphasis
on the creative process, provides an excellent condition for communal participation.
As the Philippines became more Westernized towards the latter part of the 19th
century because of exposure to European liberal and secular ideas, particularly in the
urban centers, these contexts were replaced by their exact opposite. Artistic creation
becomes highly specialistic, separate from everyday life, an assertion of the individual
ego, and driven by commercial success. It becomes a medium for technical virtuosity,
sensory impacts, entertainment, and highly materialistic values. Art loses its magical,
mythical and spiritual qualities.
The Filipino cultural substratum, however, does not succumb that easily to
foreign influences no matter how dominant. The cultural matrix of Philippine art remains
communal except among Filipino artists thoroughly educated in the West. Hence,
contemporary artists in the Philippines – even those schooled in Western classical-
romantic, realist, impressionist, post-impressionist, cubistic, surrealist, expressionistic,
abstractionist, constructivist, photorealist, pop-op, avant-garde or post-modern thought
– will exhibit formal tendencies clearly rooted in traditional art. Western influences on
Philippine art constitute some kind of a thin veneer or mask that disguises indigenous
qualities rooted in the communal tradition.
Unlike twentieth century cubism which fragments and dissects objects, Filipino
art turns to various techniques for presenting many sides or views of the object
precisely for the purpose of preserving its wholeness and articulating its nature. The
omniscient perspective of communal art reveals a keen interest in depicting the object
as we know it rather than as we see it. As a rule, the broadest sides are tilted towards
us for greatest recognizability of the object.
We see this approach in contemporary painter Norma Belleza’s works, where it is
extensively used, as in her “Hapunan”(Supper). Objects most easily identifiable from the
top view are portrayed from this vantage point, such as the table, plates, stove and
slippers. Those that are more intelligible from a frontal or lateral orientation are depicted
accordingly, such as the bottle, human figures and the cat. Other contemporary artists
notable for relying on the broadest aspect technique are Antonio Austria and Manuel
Baldemor.
An intimate knowledge of reality, such as may be obtained from a multi-view
approach is impossible to achieve with the camera. This machine can only depict one
view at a time, and hence can only present to us the surface, never the essence of
reality. Honore Daumier, French painter and caricaturist, just right after the use of the
camera became popular in the 1840s, declared that “the camera sees everything but
understands nothing.”
Inspite of this declaration, however, Western art has become so imbued with the
mechanistic world view that conventional or academic Western realism has become
synonymous with this view, in varying degrees. The reason for this, perhaps, is that
single or one-view perspective is a fitting metaphor for the highly individualistic
philosophy that pervades Western, especially American, culture up to the present time.
This is not to gainsay, however, the great strides in the West towards a non-mechanistic
world view since the advent of Cezanne and the post-impressionists. In fact, the major
movements of twentieth century art in Europe implicitly question the philosophy of
mechanistic materialsm.
The communal perspective attempts to represent the views of all the members of
a community. Hence, we do not find a single focal center in its artistic expressions. In
the works of Larry Alcala, the most popular Philippine cartoonist who recently passed
away, there is no interest in a single individual’s view of things. Instead, we get a wide
panorama of social life and activities, the way things would be experienced by different
people at any one time or by one person at different points in time. It could also be the
experience of a community at various points in time. Among the highly popular artists
strongly manifesting this multi-focal, omniscient view are Carlos Francisco, Jose Blanco,
Tam Austria, Angelito Antonio, Mauro Malang Santos and Anita Magsaysay Ho.
Related to this multi-focal tendency is the absence of emphasis on any one
individual person. There are no superstars. Most often it is not a single person but a
group or community that is portrayed.
The Filipino popular psyche is exceptionally transparent in its openness,
spontaneity, and capacity for empathy. This is most likely why many Filipinos are
excellent communicators, highly expressive, superior performers, extremely sensitive,
warm and emotional. It is probably for the same reason that they are good
inpakikiramdam (participatory sensitivity) and lambing (tender, loving care). Some of the
correlates of these inner qualities are the preference for richly tasting food (particularly
flavors derived from garlic, sour fruits, shrimp paste, fish sauces, ginger, turmeric,
laurel, oregano and other spices); highly inflected speech; markedly tactile and
biomorphic forms, delight in rainbow hues and the polychromatic, and strong curvilinear
tendencies in the visual arts.
In contrast, Western, particularly British and American food, is relatively bland,
their speech monotonal, their art more visual than tactile, their colors monochromatic
and their forms rectilinear-geometric.
Certainly the works of many contemporary Filipino artists are supreme examples
of polychromaticism (use of rich, intense myriad hues) and immediately establish their
relation to multi-colored traditional creations such as fans, mats, Christmas star
lanterns; and festivals like the Pahiyas of Lucban, Moriones of Marinduque and Ati-
Atihan of Kalibo.
A marked tendency of Philippine art, whether traditional, modern or
contemporary, is the penchant for filling up every empty space with form and detail. We
call this maximalism. More than anything else, this tendency seems to be a
manifestation of the Filipinos’ highly sensitive and expressive nature that is rooted in
communal existence. One who connects to others so fully, sensitively and intimately will
have so much to be expressive about. Filipino spontaneity and exuberance, it seems,
knows no bounds. A well-known example of this in popular art is the Filipino jeepney,
whose profuseness of detail for a public utility vehicle – normally drab and uniform in
other countries – exists nowhere else in the world. In the more academic and serious
genres, there is a long thread of maximalism from Fernando Amorsolo in the early
twentieth century to Vicente Manansala in the 50s and Angelo Baldemor of today.
The Filipinos’ intuitive, holistic and multisensory approach to life militates against
fragmenting experience into separate levels or compartments. Indeed activities, objects,
and the arts tend to be multifunctional. Producing something that has many different
uses creates a sense of community for they bring people of different interests and
needs together. A typical Filipino food called sinigang combines soup, meat and
vegetables in one bowl whereas they would constitute separate dishes in another
culture. Typically, Philippine stores and markets, even bookstores and drugstores, but
especially department stores and malls will contain all kinds of things because they
typically cater to Filipinos who come in groups.
Traditional Filipino culture does not divide the arts into seven different sensory–
behavioral categories. This insight at once provides us with a directional force in
Philippine contemporary art: a movement towards integration.
The arts brought to the Philippines from Europe in the 19th century came in
separate specializations: graphic, plastic, performing, literary and so forth. But Filipinos
inevitably moved towards their integration, as they have always done in the past. Again,
the strong influence of modernism in Philippine art during the thirty-year span from the
50s to the 70s demanded the purity of painting as painting and sculpture as sculpture.
But this began to change in the 80s with the new and younger artists’ explorations into
multi-media and installation art. An outstanding example of this is Aro Soriano, who, for
a long time enduring a Bohemian existence as an exile in Paris, re-established himself
in the Philippines in the 80s to rediscover his roots. His works, though very
contemporary in sensibility, characteristically display great skill in integrating visual
elements, folklore, song texts, ritual and performance.
Having a traditional base, the popularity of mixed media and installations in
Philippine art now eclipses all the others. These could either be an assemblage of
three-dimensional forms within a two-dimensional format, playfully interactive works
which could be touched and manipulated such as those of Noel Cuizon and Dennis
Ascalon, or a combination of indigenous materials and found objects, as in the
installation and environmental art which gained prominence through the pioneering
efforts of Junyee, Santiago Bose and Roberto Villanueva and later Imelda Cajipe-
Endaya , Alwin Reamillo, and, in a class by himself because of his fusion of found
objects to create highly imaginative but functional sculptures, Gabby Barredo. A
heightened concern for the environment and assertion of indigenous identity are among
the significant contributions of this younger group of artists.
Though unrecognized by many art critics, it appears that the most salient feature
of Philippine arts is a rather stylized, rhythmic and patterned design or organization of
forms. This is especially evident in folk and popular art but manifest in almost the same
degree in serious art and other genres, except perhaps in social realist art and works of
artists like Jaime de Guzman and Onib Olmedo, whose genuine expressions of angst
are typically non-existent in Philippine art. Even the most impressionistic variety of
Philippine art will not succumb to the lure of formlessness and the shifting, shimmering
textures of European impressionism. The use of thick, raw, frenetically driven and
agitated impastos in Western abstract expressionism is alien to the Filipino
temperament. Instead we find the so-called “abstract expressionist” textures and
compositions of Jose Joya and Raul Isidro to be highly lyrical, musical and rhythmically-
patterned in a way akin to that of traditional weaving. Even works superficially labeled
surrealistic in Philippine art are in reality playful fantasies, with none of the nihilism,
sense of ambiguity and absurdity of life associated with it in the West.
The rhythmic patterning in Philippine arts seems to stem from the Filipinos’ highly
devotional attitude towards the divine and the predisposition towards experiencing life
as an integrated whole, inspiring in them a deep sense of community and feeling of
harmony with the vital rhythms of existence. The joy and feeling of well-being that
springs from this harmony engenders in the Filipino soul an inherent musicality that
provides the rhythmic matrix for everything the Filipino artist touches. The quintessential
expression of this gift is the abstract art of Hernando Ocampo. The sinuous, cell-like,
biomorphic forms of his paintings are individually alive and distinct yet sensitive to one
another and seemingly engaged in a collective dance of joy. Some critics have
suggested that Ocampo’s art could be the most faithful expression of Filipino identity.
It is heartening to realize that no matter how extensive Western influence is on
Philippine culture, the Filipinos’ traditional sensibility, world view, values and attitudes
remain essentially intact, as can be gleaned from their contemporary visual arts 8.
CONCLUSION:
“The principle of cultural identity does not mean that cultures cannot be criticized. If all
cultures on earth are to survive, most of them have to change some of their beliefs and
practices in order to become compatible with one another” (Felipe, 2011).
The Philippine culture has to be dynamic in its relation with other cultures in the
world. By harmonizing the Western and the Filipino concepts of art and its practice, a
truly Philippine identity in the arts would emerge out of the shared cultural universe, not
only of our own people, but of the humanity as a whole.
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In Focus: Philippine Arts in Context - National Commission for Culture and the Artsgwhs-stg02.i.gov.ph
